American Go E-Journal » BC Card Cup

May isn’t just a big month for US go players. The temperature is rising on the international go scene too. On May 4, Chen Yaoye 9P defended his Chinese Tianyuan (Tengen) title against up-and-coming player, Zhou Hexi 4P. Zhou faced off a strong field to top the 26th Tianyuan qualifiers for the second year in a row, but once again fell to Chen, who has now held the Tianyuan for four consecutive years. Meanwhile in Korea, Lee Sedol 9P fought back from a 2-1 disadvantage to defeat Park Younghun 9P in the (best of five) 17th GS Caltex Cup. Lee took home a cool $60,000 for his trouble. The finals of the 4th BC Card Cup start tomorrow (May 11 in the US), with Korea’s Baek Hongseok 9P set to take on China’s Dang Yifei 4P. China dominated the earlier rounds of the tournament, but Baek managed to fight his way through to the final, defeating Zhou Ruiyang 5P and Hu Yaoyu 8P along the way. 17 year old Dang Yifei’s run has been no less impressive. En route to the final, Dang defeated Lee Sedol 9P, Park Younghun 9P and Piao Wenyao 9P, among others. Both players are competing for their first international title.

Coming up very soon:

The 33rd World Amateur Go Championship is just getting started in Guangzhou, China. Expect updates from the E-Journal team very soon.

The 4th BC Card Cup finals start tomorrow. Watch them live on Baduk TV. The coverage for game 1 starts at 11:30pm, May 11, US EDT.

The 67th Japanese Honinbo title match starts on May 15 in Kyoto, Japan.

This being an Olympic year – the (quadrennial) Ing Cup will begin on May 23 in Taiwan.
For more details, see the professional Go calendar at Go Game Guru.

The 4th BC Card Cup is about to enter the round of 16. This year’s tournament has been full of upsets with favorites falling left and right in the early rounds. Two stand-out players so far have been 16 year old Mi Yuting 3P and 18 year old Dang Yifei 4P of China. In the first round, Mi defeated Korea’s young star, Park Junghwan 9P. Then in the round of 32, Mi caused quite a stir by defeating the legendary Lee Changho 9P. Dang followed suit by defeating Lee Sedol 9P in the round of 32. Mi and Dang are joined by China’s Gu Li 9P, Niu Yutian 7P, Zhou Ruiyang 5P, Kong Jie 9P, Liu Xing 7P, Xie He 7P, Tan Xiao 5P, Chen Yaoye 9P, Jiang Weijie 9P, Piao Wenyao 9P and Hu Yaoyu 8P, and Korea’s Lee Wonyoung 3P, Park Younghun 9P and Baek Hongseok 9P. Unfortunately for Japan and Taiwan, the handful of their players who made it to the round of 64 were eliminated at that stage.- Jingning; based on her original article: China on a roll in 4th BC Card Cup at Go Game Guru. Photo: Mi Yuting 3P.

Lee pulled ahead in Game Three, staging a surprise reversal after Gu led for most of the game. Gu, playing white, made a small overplay in the late middle game, invading black’s position at the top with move 146. Lee met this with unrelenting force and an iron will. He managed to kill all of white’s invading stones, bringing himself back into the game and going on to win by half a point.

Game Four was the most complicated of the series, opening with a new and fiendishly difficult variation in the lower right. The fighting spread from there and didn’t stop for the whole game. Many assumed the game was over and that Lee had won the title when he took a decided advantage at move 134. However, Gu kept fighting and pulled off an even more amazing reversal with his brilliant play from move 173 onwards. Be sure to check out An Younggil 8P’s commentary.

Given the preceding games, there was a lot of excitement around the fifth and final match. The game itself was relatively peaceful and, unfortunately for Gu, Lee took the lead after Gu misjudged a ko around move 70. After this, Lee demonstrated how to win a won game, trading his way around Gu’s strong challenges and leading things into the endgame. Gu resigned after all his opportunities to reverse the game had been eliminated, giving Lee Sedol his second consecutive win in the BC Card Cup. This also resolves the deadlock in the head-to-head record between these players, with the record now tilting in Lee’s favor at 14-13.

- David Ormerod; compiled from the collected reports on the BC Card Cup at Go Game Guru. Photo: (from left) Lee Sedol, Rui Naiwei, Jujo Jiang and Gu Li review Game Four of the final.

The finals of the 3rd BC Card Cup started this week, with Lee Sedol 9P of Korea facing off against Gu Li 9P of China.

Lee is the defending champion, and qualified for the finals by beating up-and-coming countryman Park Junghwan 9P. Meanwhile, Gu defeated Heo Yeongho 8P to challenge Lee in the final. The first two matches were played on April 23-24 and the score is currently tied at one game apiece, with Lee evening the score in the second game.

This leaves many go fans waiting in suspense to see how the match continues, with the head-to-head record between these two players deadlocked at 12-12. Even the readers at Go Game Guru are evenly divided over who will win the final, with a poll about the outcome split at 50/50 at press-time.

Lee Sedol was in high spirits at the pre-final press conference and banquet in Seoul, admitting to the media that he was no match for Gu when it came to drinking. After Game Two, Lee said that he was lucky to win, after an unsatisfactory opening and that Gu must have made a miscalculation in the middle game. The next game will be on April 26.